Information processing apparatus, information processing system, and privacy protection program

ABSTRACT

A system for privacy protection includes a processor and a terminal including a location detection device. The processor performs: identifying a presence possible ranges of the terminal at a first time and at a second time earlier than the first time from a combination of information on a first region including the location at the first time, and information on a second region including the location at the second time and having been already transmitted to an external apparatus; determining whether each of the identified presence possible ranges satisfies a preset condition for a presence possible range that may be known by a third party; when the condition is not satisfied, transmitting the information on a third region including the first region and a region other than the first region, as information on a region where the terminal is present at the first time, to the external apparatus.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority of theprior Japanese Patent Application No. 2018-76805, filed on Apr. 12,2018, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD

The embodiments discussed herein are related to an informationprocessing apparatus, an information processing system, and a privacyprotection program.

BACKGROUND

Heretofore, there has been known a service in which real-time locationinformation of a user is acquired from a terminal held by the user, andinformation relevant to the location is provided to the terminal basedon the acquired location information. As the user who uses such servicedoes not want to notify a service provider of detailed locationinformation in some cases, location information to be transmitted fromthe terminal to the service provider may be abstracted locationinformation of a presence location of the user. For example, the name ofa city where the user is present may be used as location information tobe transmitted from the terminal to the service provider. Relatedtechniques are disclosed in, for example, Japanese Laid-open PatentPublication No. 2009-296452.

However, even if abstracted location information is transmitted at anindividual time point, analyzing abstracted location information at aplurality of time points in combination can identify a narrow range thatthe user does not want someone to know as a range (presence range) wherethe user is present or was present in some cases. In such a case, thereis a concern that the privacy of the user may be invaded.

One of conceivable methods of reducing such invasion of privacy is toset a wider region as an abstracted location of the presence location ofthe user. In this case, for example, the name of a prefecture can beused as location information to be transmitted from the terminal to theservice provider. However, in this case, the service provider providesinformation relevant to the entire prefecture, which results in anenormous amount of information.

Moreover, another one of the conceivable methods of reducing suchinvasion of privacy is to delay the timing of transmitting theabstracted location information. However, this makes it impossible toprovide information relevant to the location of the user in real time.

In one aspect of the embodiments discussed herein, provided are aninformation processing apparatus, an information processing system, anda privacy protection program capable of implementing the privacyprotection when acquiring information relevant to a location from anexternal apparatus.

SUMMARY

According to an aspect of the embodiments, a system for privacyprotection includes a terminal including a location detection device anda processor. The processor performs: identifying presence possibleranges of the terminal at a first time and at a second time earlier thanthe first time from a combination of information of a first regionincluding the location at the first time, and information on a secondregion including the location at the second time and having been alreadytransmitted to an external apparatus; determining whether each of theidentified presence possible ranges satisfies a preset condition for apresence possible range that may be known by a third party; when thecondition is not satisfied, transmitting the information of a thirdregion including the first region and a region other than the firstregion, as information of a region where the terminal is present at thefirst time, to the external apparatus.

The object and advantages of the invention will be realized and attainedby means of the elements and combinations particularly pointed out inthe claims.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and arenot restrictive of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically illustrating a configuration of aninformation processing system according to one embodiment;

FIG. 2A is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of a userterminal, and FIG. 2B is a diagram illustrating a hardware configurationof a service providing apparatus and a personal data management server;

FIG. 3 is a function block diagram of the user terminal, the personaldata management server, and the service providing apparatus;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a privacy protection condition;

FIG. 5A is a diagram illustrating one example of an request-postedregion information log, and FIG. 5B is a diagram for explainingrepresentative points of a presence possible range;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a series of processing in thepersonal data management server;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a detailed process at step S16 inFIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a detailed process at step S18 inFIG. 6;

FIGS. 9A and 9B are diagrams illustrating transition of therequest-posted region information log;

FIGS. 10A and 10B are diagrams (Part 1) for explaining the processing inFIGS. 6 to 8;

FIGS. 11A and 11B are diagrams (Part 2) for explaining the processes inFIGS. 6 to 8;

FIG. 12 is a diagram (Part 3) for explaining the processing in FIGS. 6to 8;

FIGS. 13A and 13B are diagrams (Part 4) for explaining the processing inFIGS. 6 to 8;

FIGS. 14A and 14B are diagrams (Part 5) for explaining the processing inFIGS. 6 to 8;

FIGS. 15A and 15B are diagrams (Part 6) for explaining the processing inFIGS. 6 to 8;

FIGS. 16A and 16B are diagrams (Part 7) for explaining the processing inFIGS. 6 to 8;

FIGS. 17A and 17B are diagrams (Part 8) for explaining the processing inFIGS. 6 to 8;

FIGS. 18A and 18B are diagrams (Part 9) for explaining the processing inFIGS. 6 to 8;

FIG. 19 is a diagram (Part 1) illustrating a modification example;

FIG. 20 is a diagram (Part 2) illustrating a modification example; and

FIG. 21 is a diagram (Part 3) illustrating a modification example.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Hereinafter, one embodiment of an information processing system isdescribed in details based on FIGS. 1 to 18B. FIG. 1 schematicallyillustrates a configuration of an information processing system 100according to the one embodiment.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the information processing system 100 includesuser terminals 70 serving as terminals, a service providing apparatus 10serving as an external apparatus, and a personal data management server20 serving as an information processing apparatus. The user terminals70, the service providing apparatus 10, and the personal data managementserver 20 are coupled to a network 80 such as the Internet.

The user terminal 70 is a terminal that can be carried by a user, suchas a smartphone or a tablet-type terminal. FIG. 2A illustrates ahardware configuration of the user terminal 70. As illustrated in FIG.2A, the user terminal 70 is provided with a central processing unit(CPU) 190, a read only memory (ROM) 192, a random access memory (RAM)194, a storage unit (herein, hard disk drive (HDD)) 196, a networkinterface 197, a display unit 193, an input unit 195, a locationdetection device 189, a portable storage medium drive 199, and the like.The display unit 193 may include a liquid crystal display or the like,and the input unit 195 may include a touch panel, a physical button, akeyboard, or the like. The location detection device 189 may include aglobal positioning system (GPS) sensor or the like. These respectiveconstituent units of the user terminal 70 are coupled to a bus 198. Inthe user terminal 70, the CPU 190 executes a program stored in the ROM192 or the HDD 196 or a program read from a portable storage medium 191by the portable storage medium drive 199, thereby implementing functionsas a location information transmission unit 72 and a service informationreception unit 74 illustrated in FIG. 3. Note that, the functions of therespective units in the user terminal 70 in FIG. 3 may be implemented,for example, by an integrated circuit, such as an application specificintegrated circuit (ASIC) or a field programmable gate array (FPGA).

Referring to FIG. 3, when the location information transmission unit 72requests the service providing apparatus 10 to provide informationrelevant to a current location, the location information transmissionunit 72 transmits information on the current location acquired by thelocation detection device 189 to the personal data management server 20.

The service information reception unit 74 receives all or part ofinformation having been transmitted from the service providing apparatus10 to the personal data management server 20, from the personal datamanagement server 20. The information received by the serviceinformation reception unit 74 is information relevant to a currentlocation of the user terminal 70, and is provided to the user by beingdisplayed on the display unit 193 illustrated in FIG. 2A, for example.

Referring back to FIG. 1, the personal data management server 20receives information on a current location of the user terminal 70, anda request for information relevant to the current location, from theuser terminal 70. The personal data management server 20 formsabstracted information from the information on the current location ofthe user terminal 70, and transmits the abstracted information of thecurrent location and the request to the service providing apparatus 10.In this case, the personal data management server 20 may transmit theabstracted information of the current location to which dummyinformation is added to the service providing apparatus 10 in somecases, for reducing the invasion of privacy of the user who uses theuser terminal 70.

Moreover, when information corresponding to the request is transmittedto the personal data management server 20 from the service providingapparatus 10, the personal data management server 20 transmits all orpart of the received information to the user terminal 70. Note that,details of the hardware configuration and the functions of the personaldata management server 20 are described later.

The service providing apparatus 10 receives a request from the personaldata management server 20, extracts information to be provided to theuser terminal 70 based on the received request, and transmits theinformation to the personal data management server 20. FIG. 2Billustrates a hardware configuration of the service providing apparatus10. As illustrated in FIG. 2B, the service providing apparatus 10 isprovided with a CPU 90, a ROM 92, a RAM 94, a storage unit (herein, HDD)96, a network interface 97, a portable storage medium drive 99, and thelike. These respective constituent units of the service providingapparatus 10 are coupled to a bus 98. In the service providing apparatus10, the CPU 90 executes a program stored in the ROM 92 or the HDD 96 ora program read from a portable storage medium 91 by the portable storagemedium drive 99, thereby implementing functions as a request receptionunit 12, a processor 14, and a service information transmission unit 16illustrated in FIG. 3. Note that, the functions of the respective unitsin the service providing apparatus 10 in FIG. 3 may be implemented, forexample, by an integrated circuit such as an ASIC or an FPGA.

Referring to FIG. 3, the request reception unit 12 receives a request(including abstracted information of the current location of the userterminal 70 or dummy information) that is transmitted from the personaldata management server 20. The request reception unit 12 transfers thereceived request to the processor 14.

When the processor 14 receives the request, the processor 14 extractsinformation to be provided to the user terminal 70 based on the receivedrequest, and transfers the information to the service informationtransmission unit 16.

The service information transmission unit 16 transmits the informationreceived from the processor 14 to the personal data management server20.

(Hardware Configuration and Function of Personal Data Management Server20)

The personal data management server 20 has a hardware configuration asillustrated in FIG. 2B, similar to the service providing apparatus 10.Specifically, the personal data management server 20 is provided with aCPU 90, a ROM 92, a RAM 94, a storage unit (HDD) 96, a network interface97, a portable storage medium drive 99, and the like. In the personaldata management server 20, the CPU 90 executes a program (including aprivacy protection program) stored in the ROM 92 or HDD 96 or a program(including a privacy protection program) read from the portable storagemedium 91 by the portable storage medium drive 99, thereby implementingthe functions of the respective units in FIG. 3. Note that, thefunctions of the respective units in the personal data management server20 in FIG. 3 may be implemented, for example, by an integrated circuitsuch as an ASIC or an FPGA.

The personal data management server 20 functions, by the CPU 90executing the program, as a location information acquisition unit 22, anabstraction unit 24, a privacy invasion determination unit 26 as anidentification unit and a determination unit, a dummy region generationunit 28, a region integration unit 30, a request transmission unit 32, aservice information reception unit 34 as a reception unit, and a serviceinformation selection unit 36 as a selection unit, which are illustratedin FIG. 3.

The location information acquisition unit 22 acquires information on acurrent location of the user terminal 70 that is transmitted from thelocation information transmission unit 72 of the user terminal 70, andtransfers the information to the abstraction unit 24.

The abstraction unit 24 forms abstracted information of the receivedlocation information of the user terminal 70 based on a privacyprotection condition 40. Herein, it is assumed that the privacyprotection condition 40 is data as illustrated in FIG. 4, as oneexample. In the privacy protection condition 40 of FIG. 4, a privacyprotection condition for abstraction and a privacy protection conditionfor invasion determination are defined for every user (for every userID). Note that, each user sets in advance the privacy protectioncondition 40.

For example, in the example of FIG. 4, in a case of a user ID=A, theabstraction unit 24 forms abstracted information by converting thereceived information on the current location of the user terminal 70into a city name including the current location. Moreover, in a case ofa user ID=B, the abstraction unit 24 forms abstracted information byconverting the received location information on the user terminal 70into a prefecture name including the location information. Moreover, ina case of a user ID=C, the abstraction unit 24 forms abstractedinformation by converting the received location information on the userterminal 70 into a block name including the location information. Notethat, the abstracted information of the current location indicates aregion where the user is present, so that the abstracted region of thecurrent location is referred to as “presence region” below. The privacyprotection condition for invasion determination is used in the privacyinvasion determination unit 26, and thus is described in details later.

Referring again to FIG. 3, when information on a presence region of theuser terminal 70 is transmitted to the service providing apparatus 10,the privacy invasion determination unit 26 determines whether theprivacy is invaded. Herein, even if abstracted information of a currentlocation (information on a presence region) is transmitted at anindividual time point, analyzing presence regions at a plurality of timepoints in combination may identify a narrow range that the user does notwant someone to know as a range (presence possible range) where the useris present or was present in some cases. The “range that the user doesnot want someone to know” in this case is the “privacy protectioncondition for invasion determination” of the privacy protectioncondition 40 in FIG. 4. In other words, the privacy protection conditionfor invasion determination is a preset condition for a presence possiblerange that the user does not want a third party to know. For example, ina case of the user ID=A in FIG. 4, it is determined that the privacy isinvaded unless a presence possible range that is identified whenpresence region information at a plurality of time points is analyzed incombination is 70% or more of the presence region. Moreover, in a caseof the user ID=B, it is determined that the privacy is invaded unless apresence possible range that is identified when presence regioninformation at a plurality of time points is analyzed in combination hasan area of 30 km² or more. Note that, specific processing of the privacyinvasion determination unit 26 is described later.

When the privacy invasion determination unit 26 determines that theprivacy of the user is invaded, the dummy region generation unit 28generates dummy information to be transmitted to the service providingapparatus 10 together with the information on a presence region of theuser terminal 70. The dummy information is information on a differentregion (dummy region) in the vicinity of the presence region. Forexample, when the presence region is an A block, a block that is presentin the vicinity of the A block becomes a dummy region.

The region integration unit 30 integrates information on a presenceregion converted by the abstraction unit 24 with information on a dummyregion generated by the dummy region generation unit 28, and transfersthe integrated information to the request transmission unit 32. Notethat, when the privacy invasion determination unit 26 determines that noprivacy is invaded, the abstraction unit 24 directly transfersinformation on a presence region of the user terminal 70 to the requesttransmission unit 32.

The request transmission unit 32 transmits a request from the userterminal 70, together with information on a region received from theregion integration unit 30 or the abstraction unit 24, to the requestreception unit 12 of the service providing apparatus 10. Note that, therequest transmission unit 32 stores the content of the request in arequest-posted region information log 42. The request-posted regioninformation log 42 has a data structure as illustrated in FIG. 5A, asone example. The request-posted region information log 42 in FIG. 5A isprepared for every user terminal 70 (for every user ID).

As illustrated in FIG. 5A, the request-posted region information log 42stores therein information including “date/time”, “presence regioninformation”, “dummy region information”, and “presence possible range”.In the column of “date/time”, information on date/time when the requestis received from the user terminal 70 is stored. In the column of“presence region information”, information on a presence region (forexample, city name where the user terminal 70 is present) abstractedfrom a current location of the user terminal 70 is stored. In the columnof “dummy region information”, information on a dummy region (forexample, a city name in the vicinity of the city where the user terminal70 is present) having been transmitted to the service providingapparatus 10 is stored. In the column of “presence possible range”,information on a presence possible range of the user terminal 70 thatcan be identified by the service providing apparatus 10 is stored.Specifically, information on the latitudes and the longitudes of aplurality of representative points for defining a presence possiblerange is stored in the column of “presence possible range”. In theexample of FIG. 5A, the presence possible range is the entireNakano-city in Tokyo metropolis, so that representative points are aplurality of points, each of which is indicated by a white circle and islocated in a boundary between Nakano-city and a different city (forexample, a point at which the direction of a boundary line is changed ata predetermined angle or more) as illustrated in FIG. 5B. Note that,FIG. 5B merely illustrates one example of the representative points, andthe number and the locations of actual representative points aredifferent from those in FIG. 5B.

When the service information reception unit 34 receives information fromthe service information transmission unit 16 of the service providingapparatus 10, the service information reception unit 34 transfers thereceived information to the service information selection unit 36.

The service information selection unit 36 selects (extracts), out of theinformation received by the service information reception unit 34,information relevant to a presence region of the user terminal 70, andtransmits the selected (extracted) information to the serviceinformation reception unit 74 of the user terminal 70. The serviceinformation selection unit 36 refers to the column of presence regioninformation of the request-posted region information log 42 whenselecting (extracting) information.

(Processing in Personal Data Management Server 20)

Next, processing in the personal data management server 20 is describedin detail along flowcharts of FIGS. 6 to 8 while referring to otherdrawings as appropriate. Note that, as the precondition of thedescription, it is assumed that a user having the user ID=A in FIG. 4uses the user terminal 70. Moreover, no log data on the user terminal 70having the user ID=A is present in the request-posted region informationlog 42.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating overall processing of the personaldata management server 20. In the processing of FIG. 6, at step S10, thelocation information acquisition unit 22 waits until a request isgenerated. When current location information and a request aretransmitted from the location information transmission unit 72 of theuser terminal 70, the processing is shifted to step S12, the locationinformation transmission unit 72 receives and transmits the currentlocation information and the request to the abstraction unit 24.

At step S14, the abstraction unit 24 generates presence regioninformation abstracted from the current location information. In thiscase, the abstraction unit 24 obtains a privacy protection condition forabstraction “city” of the user having the user ID=A from the privacyprotection condition 40 of FIG. 4 to generate the abstracted informationfrom the current location information on the user terminal 70. Forexample, when the user terminal 70 is present within Nakano-city, thepresence region is “Nakano-city”.

At step S16, the privacy invasion determination unit 26 executes privacyinvasion determination processing. At step S16, processing along aflowchart in FIG. 7 is executed. Note that, in the processing of FIG. 7,this time request is an n-th request.

In the processing of FIG. 7, at step S30, the privacy invasiondetermination unit 26 determines whether information relevant to an(n−1)-th request is stored in the request-posted region information log42. Note that, as described above, a log of the user ID=A is not presentin the request-posted region information log 42, so that thedetermination at step S30 is negative. If the determination at step S30is negative, the privacy invasion determination unit 26 determines “noprivacy is invaded” at step S32, the entire processing in FIG. 7 isended, and the processing is shifted to step S17 in FIG. 6.

When the processing is shifted to step S17 in FIG. 6, the privacyinvasion determination unit 26 determines whether privacy invasion hasbeen determined. If the determination at step S17 is negative, theprocessing is shifted to step S22.

When the processing is shifted to step S22, the request transmissionunit 32 transmits a request to the service providing apparatus 10 (therequest reception unit 12). In this process, the request transmissionunit 32 transmits information on a presence region (Nakano-city)together with the request.

At step S24, the request transmission unit 32 updates the request-postedregion information log 42. In the case of this example, as in FIG. 5A,“Nakano-city” is stored in the column of presence region information,while the column of dummy region information is a blank column.Moreover, information on the latitudes and the longitudes ofrepresentative points (points indicated by white circles) on theboundary of Nakano-city illustrated in FIG. 5B is stored in the columnof presence possible range.

When the processing is shifted to step S26, the service informationreception unit 34 receives service information (herein, informationrelevant to a presence region (Nakano-city)) transmitted from theservice providing apparatus 10.

At step S28, the service information selection unit 36 refers to therequest-posted region information log 42 to select information to beprovided to the user terminal 70 among the received service information,and transmits the selected information to the user terminal 70 (theservice information reception unit 74). Note that, when the presenceregion of the user terminal 70 is Nakano-city, and the serviceinformation reception unit 34 only receives information relevant to thepresence region (Nakano-city) as service information, the serviceinformation selection unit 36 transmits all the received information tothe user terminal 70. Thereafter, the processing is returned to stepS10.

Described is a case where in a status of a log as illustrated in FIG. 9Abeing stored in the request-posted region information log 42, a requestis generated at 14:00:00 on 25 Oct. 2017 from the user terminal 70. Acurrent location of the user terminal 70 at 14:00:00 is withinSetagaya-city. Note that, in the column of “presence possible range” inthe log data of FIG. 9A, information on the latitudes and the longitudesof representative points that define the entire region of Shibuya-cityis stored.

When a request is generated from the user terminal 70, the determinationat step S10 in FIG. 6 is affirmative, and the processing is shifted tostep S12. When the processing is shifted to step S12, the locationinformation transmission unit 72 receives and transmits current locationinformation and the request to the abstraction unit 24. At step S14, theabstraction unit 24 forms abstracted information on a presence regionfrom the current location information. In this case, the presence regionis “Setagaya-city”.

At step S16, the privacy invasion determination processing in FIG. 7 isexecuted. In the processing of FIG. 7, at step S30, the privacy invasiondetermination unit 26 determines whether an (n−1)-th request is presentin the request-posted region information log 42. Herein, as illustratedin FIG. 9A, information on the request ((n−1)-th request) having beenobtained immediately before is stored in the request-posted regioninformation log 42, so that the determination at step S30 isaffirmative, and the processing is shifted to step S34.

When the processing is shifted to step S34, the privacy invasiondetermination unit 26 calculates interval time between the (n−1)-threquest and an n-th request. In this example, the interval time iscalculated as 30 minutes.

At step S36, the privacy invasion determination unit 26 obtains amovable range (movement possible range) from the boundary of thepresence possible range in the (n−1)-th request within the intervaltime. In this case, the presence possible range of the (n−1)-th requestis the whole region of Shibuya-city, so that a range illustrated by thedashed line in FIG. 10A is identified as a movable range from theboundary of Shibuya-city within the interval time (30 minutes). Themovement possible range can be set as a range where points apart fromrespective points on the boundary by a predetermined distance based onthe interval time are connected, for example.

At step S38, the privacy invasion determination unit 26 obtains a ratioof the area of a presence region of the n-th request included in theobtained movement possible range, to the area of the presence region ofthe n-th request. Specifically, the privacy invasion determination unit26 obtains a ratio of the area within Setagaya-city (the area of a blackpainted portion in FIG. 10B) that overlaps the obtained movementpossible range (region surrounded by the dashed line), to the area ofSetagaya-city.

At step S40, the privacy invasion determination unit 26 determineswhether a privacy protection condition of the n-th request is satisfied.In this case, the privacy invasion determination unit 26 determineswhether the privacy protection condition for invasion determination(ratio being 70% or more) of the user ID=A in FIG. 4 is satisfied. Inthe example of FIG. 10B, the ratio of the black painted portion toSetagaya-city is not 70% or more of Setagaya-city, so that thedetermination at step S40 is negative, and the processing is shifted tostep S44. At step S44, the privacy invasion determination unit 26determines that the privacy is invaded in the n-th request. On the otherhand, if the determination at step S40 is affirmative, the processing isshifted to step S42, and the privacy invasion determination unit 26determines that no privacy is invaded in the n-th request. After stepS42 or S44, the processing is shifted to step S46.

When the processing is shifted to step S46, the privacy invasiondetermination unit 26 obtains a movement possible range from theboundary of the presence possible range in the n-th request within theinterval time. In this case, a movement possible range illustrated bythe thick solid line in FIG. 11A is identified.

At step S48, the privacy invasion determination unit 26 obtains a ratioof the area of a presence region of the (n−1)-th request included in theobtained movement possible range, to the area of a presence region inthe (n−1)-th request. Specifically, the privacy invasion determinationunit 26 obtains a ratio of the area within Shibuya-city (the area of ablack painted portion in FIG. 11B) that overlaps the obtained movementpossible range (region surrounded by the thick solid line), to the areaof Shibuya-city. In this case, as illustrated in FIG. 11B, the entireShibuya-city is included in the movement possible range, so that theratio of 100% is obtained.

At step S50, the privacy invasion determination unit 26 determineswhether a privacy protection condition of the n-th request is satisfied.In this case, the privacy invasion determination unit 26 determineswhether the privacy protection condition for invasion determination(ratio being 70% or more) of the user ID=A in FIG. 4 is satisfied. Inthe example of FIG. 11B, the ratio obtained at step S48 is 70% or more,so that the determination at step S50 is affirmative, and the processingis shifted to step S52.

When the processing is shifted to step S52, the privacy invasiondetermination unit 26 determines that no privacy is invaded in the n-threquest. On the other hand, if the determination at step S50 isnegative, and the processing is shifted to step S54, the privacyinvasion determination unit 26 determines that the privacy is invaded inthe n-th request. After step S52 or S54, the entire processing in FIG. 7is ended, the processing is shifted to step S17 in FIG. 6. Note that, inthe processing in FIG. 7, the processes from steps S36 to S44 and theprocesses from steps S46 to S54 may be executed with the changed order,or may be concurrently executed.

When the processing is shifted to step S17 in FIG. 6, the privacyinvasion determination unit 26 determines whether privacy invasion hasbeen determined. Herein, in the processing in FIG. 7, if the processinghas undergone step S44 and/or step S54, the determination at step S17 isaffirmative. If the determination at step S17 is affirmative, theprocessing is shifted to step S18.

When the processing is shifted to step S18, the dummy region generationunit 28 executes dummy region information generation processing.Specifically, the dummy region generation unit 28 executes processingalong the flowchart in FIG. 8.

In the processing of FIG. 8, at step S60, the dummy region generationunit 28 extracts a region (city) at least a part of which is included ina region where a movement possible range (region surrounded by thedashed line in FIG. 12) at the (n−1)-th request and a movement possiblerange (region surrounded by the solid line in FIG. 12) in the n-threquest overlap each other, as an additional candidate region. In thiscase, as illustrated in FIG. 12, “Suginami-city”, “Nakano-city”,“Meguro-city”, “Shinagawa-city”, “Minato-city”, and “Shinjuku-city”,each including at least a part that is included in the overlappingregion, are extracted as additional candidate regions.

At step S62, the dummy region generation unit 28 obtains an increasedarea in the presence possible range between at the (n−1)-th request andat the n-th request when each of all the additional candidate regions isadded one after another to the presence region of the n-th request.

For example, “Suginami-city” that is an additional candidate region isadded to a presence region of the n-th request. In this case, asillustrated in FIG. 13A, the presence region of the n-th requestincludes Setagaya-city and Suginami-city, a movement possible rangeillustrated by the thick solid line at the n-th request becomes widerthan that in FIG. 12. Further, the presence possible range at the n-threquest increases by the area of a range illustrated being black paintedwithin Suginami-city. Meanwhile, the increased area of a presencepossible range at the (n−1)-th request is 0.

Moreover, for example, “Meguro-city” that is an additional candidateregion is added to the presence region of the n-th request. In thiscase, as illustrated in FIG. 13B, the presence region of the n-threquest includes Setagaya-city and Meguro-city, a movement possiblerange illustrated by the thick solid line at the n-th request becomeswider than that in FIG. 12. Further, the presence possible range at then-th request increases by the area of a range illustrated being blackpainted within Meguro-city. Meanwhile, the increased area of a presencepossible range at the (n−1)-th request is 0.

The other additional candidate regions are subjected to the similarprocessing to calculate the increased area. Note that, herein, as oneexample, the order of “Suginami-city”, “Meguro-city”, “Shinagawa-city” .. . is a descending order of the increased area.

At step S64, the dummy region generation unit 28 adds one of theadditional candidate regions in descending order of the increased area,to the presence region of the n-th request. The dummy region generationunit 28 adds Suginami-city to the presence region (Setagaya-city) of then-th request. In this case, the presence possible range in the n-threquest is a portion illustrated being black painted in FIG. 13A.

At step S66, the dummy region generation unit 28 determines whether aprivacy protection condition is satisfied. Herein, the dummy regiongeneration unit 28 determines whether the area of a portion illustratedbeing black painted in FIG. 13A is 70% or more of the area of thepresence region (Setagaya-city) at the n-th request. If thedetermination at step S66 is negative, the processing is returned tostep S64.

At step S64, Meguro-city having the second largest increased area isadded to the presence region (herein Setagaya-city and Suginami-city) ofthe n-th request. In this case, the presence possible range in the n-threquest is a portion illustrated being black painted in FIG. 14A. Atstep S66, the dummy region generation unit 28 determines whether thearea of a portion illustrated being black painted in FIG. 14A is 70% ormore of that of the presence region (Setagaya-city) at the n-th request.If the determination at step S66 is negative, the processing is againreturned to step S64.

When the processing is returned to step S64, Shinagawa-city having thethird largest increased area is added to the presence region (hereinSetagaya-city, Suginami-city, and Meguro-city) of the n-th request. Inthis case, the presence possible range in the n-th request is a portionillustrated being black painted in FIG. 14B. At step S66, the dummyregion generation unit 28 determines whether the area of the portionillustrated being black painted in FIG. 14B is 70% or more of the areaof the presence region (Setagaya-city) at the n-th request. If thedetermination herein is affirmative, the entire processing in FIG. 8 isended, and the processing is shifted to step S20 in FIG. 6. Note that,the additional candidate regions (Suginami-city, Meguro-city, andShinagawa-city) having been added at step S64 serves as a dummy region,and information on the dummy region is transmitted from the dummy regiongeneration unit 28 to the region integration unit 30.

When the processing is shifted to step S20 in FIG. 6, the regionintegration unit 30 integrates information on the presence region(Setagaya-city) with information on the dummy region (Suginami-city,Meguro-city, and Shinagawa-city), and transmits the integratedinformation to the request transmission unit 32.

At step S22, the request transmission unit 32 transmits a request to theservice providing apparatus 10 (the request reception unit 12). In thisprocess, the request transmission unit 32 transmits the information onthe presence region (Setagaya-city) and the information on the dummyregion (Suginami-city, Meguro-city, and Shinagawa-city), together withthe request.

At step S24, the request transmission unit 32 updates the request-postedregion information log 42. In the case of this example, as in FIG. 9B,“Setagaya-city” is stored in the column of presence region information,and “Suginami-city, Meguro-city, and Shinagawa-city” are stored in thecolumn of dummy region information. Further, information on thelatitudes and the longitudes of a plurality of representative points inthe black painted portion illustrated in FIG. 14B is stored in thecolumn of presence possible range.

When the processing is shifted to step S26, the service informationreception unit 34 receives service information (herein, informationrelevant to the presence region (Setagaya-city) and information relevantto the dummy region (Suginami-city, Meguro-city, and Shinagawa-city))transmitted from the service providing apparatus 10.

At step S28, the service information selection unit 36 refers to therequest-posted region information log 42 to select information to beprovided to the user terminal 70 among the received service information,and transmits the selected information to the user terminal 70 (theservice information reception unit 74). Note that, the serviceinformation reception unit 34 receives, as service information,information relevant to the presence region (Setagaya-city) andinformation relevant to the dummy region information (Suginami-city,Meguro-city, and Shinagawa-city). Meanwhile, a current presence regionof the user terminal 70 is Setagaya-city, so that the serviceinformation selection unit 36 selects (extracts) only the informationrelevant to the presence region (Setagaya-city) among the receivedinformation, and transmits the selected (extracted) information to theuser terminal 70. Thereafter, the processing is returned to step S10.

The above-described example from FIGS. 10A to 14B is an example in acase where the privacy is invaded in the n-th request, but no privacy isinvaded in the (n−1)-th request. As another example, a case where theprivacy is invaded in the (n−1)-th request, but no privacy is invaded inthe n-th request is described below.

FIG. 15A illustrates a case where the presence region at the (n−1)-threquest is Setagaya-city, and the presence region at the n-th request isShibuya-city. In this case, a range illustrated by the thick solid lineis a movement possible range at the n-th request, and a rangeillustrated by the dashed line is a movement possible range at the(n−1)-th request, in FIG. 15B.

In this example, the ratio of the area (area of a black painted portionin FIG. 15B) of the presence region of the (n−1)-th request included inmovement possible range at the n-th request to the area (area ofSetagaya-city) of the presence region of the (n−1)-th request is not 70%or more. Accordingly, the privacy is invaded in the (n−1)-th request.Meanwhile, the ratio of the area (area of the entire Shibuya-city) ofthe presence region of the n-th request included in the movementpossible range at the (n−1)-th request to the area (area ofShibuya-city) of the presence region of the n-th request is 100%.Accordingly, no privacy is invaded in the n-th request.

In this case, at step S64 in FIG. 8, as illustrated in FIG. 16A, thedummy region generation unit 28 adds Suginami-city to the presenceregion (Shibuya-city) at the n-th request. With this, the size of themovement possible range (range surrounded by the thick solid line) atthe n-th request becomes larger than that in FIG. 15B, so that thepresence possible range as illustrated being black painted at the(n−1)-th request becomes larger. Further, at this stage, the area of thepresence possible range (black painted range) at the (n−1)-th requestdoes not exceed 70% of the area of the entire Setagaya-city, so that thedetermination at step S66 is negative, and the processing is returned tostep S64.

Further, at step S64, as illustrated in FIG. 16B, the dummy regiongeneration unit 28 adds Meguro-city to the presence region (herein,Shibuya-city and Suginami-city) at the n-th request. With this, the sizeof the movement possible range (range surrounded by the thick solidline) at the n-th request becomes larger than that in FIG. 16A, so thatthe presence possible range as illustrated being black painted at the(n−1)-th request becomes larger. In this case, if the area of thepresence possible range (black painted range) at the (n−1)-th requestexceeds 70% of the area of the entire Setagaya-city, the determinationat step S66 is affirmative, and the processing is shifted to step S20 inFIG. 6.

When the processing is shifted to step S20, the region integration unit30 integrates information on the presence region (Sibuya-city) withinformation on the dummy region (Suginami-city and Meguro-city), andtransmits the integrated information to the request transmission unit32. Thereafter, the processes at from steps S22 to S28 may be executedin a manner similar to those described in the foregoing.

Note that, with the abovementioned processes, the presence possiblerange at the (n−1)-th request changes, so that the information on apresence possible range of the (n−1)-th request in the request-postedregion information log 42 is updated.

Next, an example in a case where the privacy is invaded in both of the(n−1)-th request and the n-th request is described.

FIG. 17A illustrates a case where a presence region at the (n−1)-threquest is Shibuya-city, and a presence region at the n-th request isToshima-city. In this case, a range illustrated by the thick solid lineis a movement possible range at the n-th request, and a rangeillustrated by the dashed line is a movement possible range at the(n−1)-th request, in FIG. 17A.

In FIG. 17A, the presence possible range (presence possible range withinShibuya-city) at the (n−1)-th request and the presence possible range atthe n-th request (presence possible range within Toshima-city) arehatched. As is understood from FIG. 17A, the presence possible range atthe (n−1)-th request is not 70% or more of the area of the entireShibuya-city, and the presence possible range at the n-th request is not70% or more the area of the entire Toshima-city.

In this case, when the dummy region generation unit 28 addsShinjuku-city to the presence region (Toshima-city) at the n-th requestas illustrated in FIG. 17B, the movement possible range at the n-threquest becomes wider than that in FIG. 17A. In this process, thepresence possible range at the n-th request is a black painted regionillustrated in FIG. 18A, and the presence possible range is 70% or moreof the area of the entire Toshima-city. Moreover, the presence possiblerange at the (n−1)-th request is a black painted region illustrated inFIG. 18B, and the presence possible range of the area of the entireShibuya-city is 70% or more. Accordingly, in this example, the dummyregion generation unit 28 sets Shinjuku-city as a dummy region, and thuscan reduce the privacy invasion.

Note that, with the abovementioned processes, the presence possiblerange at the (n−1)-th request changes, so that the information on thepresence possible range of the (n−1)-th request in the request-postedregion information log 42 is updated.

Note that, when the processing in FIG. 6 is repeated, in the personaldata management server 20, when a (n+1)-th request is present, theprocessing similar to the above is executed by using the presencepossible range having been obtained when the n-th request has beentransmitted as a presence region at the n-th request.

As is clear from the description in the foregoing, in the presentembodiment, the dummy region generation unit 28, the region integrationunit 30, and the request transmission unit 32 implement the function asa transmission unit that transmits, when the privacy protectioncondition is not satisfied, a presence region at the n-th request and adummy region other than the presence region, together with the request,to the service providing apparatus 10.

As is described in details in the foregoing, with the presentembodiment, the privacy invasion determination unit 26 identifies, froma combination of information on a presence region (first region)including a location detected by the location detection device 189 ofthe user terminal 70 at a first time (at an n-th request) andinformation on a presence region (second region) including a locationhaving been detected at a second time (at an (n−1)-th request) earlierthan the first time, a presence possible range of the user terminal 70at the n-th request and a presence possible range of the user terminal70 at the (n−1)-th request (steps S38 and S48), and determines whethereach presence possible range satisfies a privacy protection condition(preset condition for a presence possible range that may be known to athird party). Further, when the privacy protection condition is notsatisfied, the dummy region generation unit 28 sets a region other thanthe presence region at the n-th request as a dummy region, and therequest transmission unit 32 transmits the presence region and the dummyregion (third region) integrated by the region integration unit 30,together with the request, to the service providing apparatus 10.Moreover, the service information reception unit 34 receives informationrelevant to the presence region and the dummy region from the serviceproviding apparatus 10. With this, in the present embodiment, in a casewhere the privacy is invaded when the presence region at the n-threquest and the presence region at the (n−1)-th request are analyzed incombination, the presence region and the dummy region are transmitted,so that it is possible to reduce the privacy invasion when theinformation relevant to the presence region is acquired. Moreover, inthe present embodiment, for example, it is possible to reduce anincrease in the amount of information that is received from the serviceproviding apparatus 10, compared with a case where a wider region is setas abstracted location information for reducing the privacy invasion.Moreover, in the present embodiment, it is possible to transmit in realtime the information on the presence region of the user terminal 70 tothe service providing apparatus 10, so that the user terminal 70 iscapable of acquiring in real time the information relevant to thepresence region.

Moreover, in the present embodiment, the dummy region generation unit 28transmits the presence region at the n-th request and the dummy regionbefore the n-th request is transmitted to confirm that the privacyprotection condition is satisfied (step S66). This can reliably reducethe privacy invasion.

Moreover, in the present embodiment, until the privacy protectioncondition is satisfied, a dummy region is added one after another (stepsS64 and S66). With this, it is possible to achieve the minimal dummyregion to be transmitted. Moreover, achieving the minimal dummy regionto be transmitted can reduce the amount of information relevant to thedummy region received from the service providing apparatus 10.

Moreover, in the present embodiment, the service information selectionunit 36 selects the information relevant to the presence region from theinformation received from the service providing apparatus 10, andtransmits the selected information to the user terminal 70. With this,it is possible to protect the privacy of the user in the user terminal70 without lowering the quality of the information provided by theservice providing apparatus 10.

Although the abovementioned embodiment has described a case wherewhether the presence possible range satisfies the privacy protectioncondition is determined based on the area of the presence possiblerange, embodiments are not limited to this. For example, whether theprivacy protection condition is satisfied may be determined based on thelength of a road included in the presence possible range. In this case,the privacy invasion determination unit 26 can determine that theprivacy protection condition is satisfied if the ratio of the length ofthe road included in the presence possible range to the length of allthe road included in the presence region is a predetermined ratio ormore or if the length of the road included in the presence possiblerange is a predetermined length or more. Moreover, for example, whetherthe privacy protection condition is satisfied may be determined based onthe number of place names included in the presence possible range. Inthis case, the privacy invasion determination unit 26 can determine thatthe privacy protection condition is satisfied if the ratio of the numberof place names included in the presence possible range to the number ofall the place names included in the presence region is a predeterminedratio or more or if the number of place names included in the presencepossible range is a predetermined number or more. Moreover, for example,whether the privacy protection condition is satisfied may be determinedbased on the number of landmarks included in the presence possiblerange. In this case, the privacy invasion determination unit 26 candetermine that the privacy protection condition is satisfied if theratio of the number of landmarks included in the presence possible rangeto the number of all the landmarks included in the presence region is apredetermined ratio or more or if the number of landmarks included inthe presence possible range is a predetermined number or more.

Note that, in the abovementioned embodiment, when a movement method ofthe user can be identified or limited, by considering the identified orlimited movement method, a movement possible range (range surrounded bythe dashed line in FIG. 9A, range surrounded by the thick solid line inFIG. 10A, and the like) may be obtained. For example, when it is knownthat the user moves by car, a movement possible range may be obtainedunder the condition that the user moves at a velocity of 50 km per hour.Moreover, when it is known that the user moves on foot, a movementpossible range may be obtained under the condition that the user movesat a velocity of 4 km per hour, and when it is known that the user movesby train, a movement possible range may be obtained under the conditionthat the user moves at a velocity of 110 km per hour. Note that, whenthe movement method of a user may not be identified, a movement possiblerange may be obtained by assuming that the user moves at the fastestvelocity among those of the movement methods that can be selected.

Moreover, in the abovementioned embodiment, in accordance with themovement method, a movable range by the user may be limited. Forexample, when it is known that the user moves by car, a movementpossible range may be limited to a range where roadways are connected.Moreover, when it is known that the user moves on foot, a movementpossible range may be limited to a range where the user can enter onfoot. Note that, the movement method by the user may be identified basedon the vibration that is detected by an acceleration sensor included inthe user terminal 70, for example, or the user may input information onthe movement method into the user terminal 70.

Note that, the personal data management server 20 as illustrated in FIG.3 in the abovementioned embodiment may also include, as illustrated inFIG. 19, an information storage unit 52 serving as a storage unit thatstores therein information (in other words, information on the dummyregion) that the service information selection unit 36 has nottransmitted to the user terminal 70. In this case, the locationinformation acquisition unit 22 checks, when receiving a currentlocation of the user terminal 70, whether information relevant to thereceived current location is stored in the information storage unit 52.Further, when the information relevant to the current location is storedin the information storage unit 52, the location information acquisitionunit 22 notifies the service information selection unit 36 of the fact.When the service information selection unit 36 receives thenotification, the service information selection unit 36 reads theinformation relevant to the current location from the informationstorage unit 52, and transmits the information relevant to the currentlocation to the user terminal 70. This can reduce the number ofcommunications between the personal data management server 20 and theservice providing apparatus 10. Note that, information changes frommoment to moment, so that it is preferable to manage the date/time whenthe information is stored in the database, and abandon the informationafter the predetermined time has elapsed form when the information hasbeen stored in the database. Note that, in the example of FIG. 19, whena dummy region is selected (steps S64 and S66 in FIG. 8), a movementdirection of the user terminal 70 (or a direction to which the userterminal 70 will move in the future) may be considered. In this case,based on the movement direction of the user terminal 70, a region (forexample, city) that is present along the movement direction may be setwith priority as a dummy region. This allows information to be used withhigh possibility in the future to be stored (pre-cached) in theinformation storage unit 52.

Note that, in the abovementioned embodiment, as illustrated in FIG. 3,the case where the personal data management server 20 includes theservice information selection unit 36 has been described, however, theembodiment is not limited to this. For example, as illustrated in FIG.20, the service information selection unit 36 of the personal datamanagement server 20 may be omitted, and a user terminal 70′ may includea service information selection unit 36′ having a function similar tothat of the service information selection unit 36.

Moreover, in the abovementioned embodiment, as illustrated in FIGS. 1and 3, the case where the information processing system 100 includes thepersonal data management server 20 has been described, however, theembodiment is not limited to this. In other words, as illustrated inFIG. 21, the personal data management server 20 may be omitted from theinformation processing system 100, and a user terminal 70″ having afunction of the personal data management server 20 may be used. Notethat, the location information acquisition unit 22 of the user terminal70″ acquires the location information from the location detection device189 in FIG. 2A.

Note that, the abovementioned processing functions can be implemented bya computer. In that case, a program in which a processing content of afunction that a processing apparatus include is described is provided.The computer executes the program to implement the abovementionedprocessing function on the computer. The program in which the processingcontent is described can be recorded on a computer-readable storagemedium (but excluding carrier waves).

When a program distributed, for example, the program is on the market ina form of portable storage media such as a digital versatile disc (DVD)or a compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM) on which the program isrecord. Moreover, it is also possible to store a program in a memorydevice of a server computer, and transfer the program to anothercomputer from the server computer via a network.

The computer that executes a program stores, for example, a program thatis recorded on the portable storage medium or a program that istransferred from the server computer, in the own memory device. Further,the computer reads the program from the own memory device, and executesthe process in accordance with the program. Noted that the computer isalso able to directly read a program from a portable storage medium, andexecute the process in accordance with the program. Moreover, every timewhen a program is transferred to a computer from the server, thecomputer may successively execute the process in accordance with thereceived program.

The embodiment described above is an example of the preferred executionof the present disclosure. Note that, the present disclosure is notlimited to the embodiment described above, but the various componentscan be modified without deviating the spirit of the present disclosure.

All examples and conditional language provided herein are intended forthe pedagogical purposes of aiding the reader in understanding theinvention and the concepts contributed by the inventor to further theart, and are not to be construed as limitations to such specificallyrecited examples and conditions, nor does the organization of suchexamples in the specification relate to a showing of the superiority andinferiority of the invention. Although one or more embodiments of thepresent invention have been described in detail, it should be understoodthat the various changes, substitutions, and alterations could be madehereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. An information processing apparatus comprising: amemory; and a processor coupled to the memory and configured to executea process including: storing, in the memory, information having beentransmitted to an external apparatus as information on a region where alocation detection device has been present; identifying a presencepossible range of the location detection device at a first time based oninformation on a second region, including a location that the locationdetection device detected at a second time earlier than the first timeand having been already transmitted as information on the second regionwhere the location detection device has been present at the second timeto the external apparatus and information on an interval between thefirst time and the second time, and identifying a presence possiblerange of the location detection device at the second time based oninformation on a first region including a location that the locationdetection device detects at the first time and information on theinterval, by referring to the memory; determining whether at least oneof the identified presence possible ranges satisfies a preset conditionfor a presence possible range where it is allowable that a location ofthe location detection device is known by a third party; when thecondition for the at least one of the identified presence possibleranges is not satisfied, transmitting the information on a third regionincluding the first region and a region other than the first region, asinformation on a region where the location detection device is presentat the first time, to the external apparatus; and receiving informationrelevant to the third region from the external apparatus.
 2. Theinformation processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein thedetermining includes determining, for each of the identified presencepossible ranges, at least one of whether an area of the identifiedpresence possible range satisfies the condition, whether a length of aroad included in the identified presence possible range satisfies thecondition, whether a number of place names included in the identifiedpresence possible range satisfies the condition, and whether a number ofpreset landmarks included in the identified presence possible rangesatisfies the condition.
 3. The information processing apparatusaccording to claim 1, wherein at least any one of the presence possiblerange of the location detection device at the first time and thepresence possible range of the location detection device at the secondtime, which are identified from a combination of the information on thethird region and the information on the second region, satisfies thecondition.
 4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3,wherein the transmitting includes deciding the third region by addingone or more regions other than the first region one by one until thepresence possible range of the location detection device at the firsttime and the presence possible range of the location detection device atthe second time satisfy the condition.
 5. The information processingapparatus according to claim 4, wherein an order of adding the regionsother than the first region to the third region is based on a movementdirection of the location detection device.
 6. The informationprocessing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the identifyingincludes identifying the presence possible ranges based on a movementmethod set in advance.
 7. The information processing apparatus accordingto claim 1, wherein the receiving further includes selecting informationrelevant to the first region from the received information relevant tothe third region.
 8. The information processing apparatus according toclaim 7, wherein out of the received information relevant to the thirdregion, information other than the information relevant to the firstregion is stored in the memory.
 9. An information processing systemcomprising: a terminal including a location detection device; and aninformation processing apparatus acquiring information on a locationdetected by the location detection device of the terminal; theinformation processing apparatus including: a memory; and a processorcoupled to the memory and configured to execute a process including:storing, in the memory, information having been transmitted to anexternal apparatus as information on a region where the locationdetection device has been present; identifying a presence possible rangeof the location detection device at a first time based on information ona second region, including a location that the location detection devicedetected at a second time earlier than the first time and having beenalready transmitted as information on the second region where thelocation detection device has been present at the second time to theexternal apparatus and information on an interval between the first timeand the second time, and identifying a presence possible range of thelocation detection device at the second time based on information on afirst region including a location that the location detection devicedetects at the first time and information on the interval, by referringto the memory; determining whether at least one of the identifiedpresence possible ranges satisfies a preset condition for a presencepossible range where it is allowable that a location of the locationdetection device is known by a third party; when the condition for theat least one of the identified presences possible ranges is notsatisfied, transmitting the information on a third region including thefirst region and a region other than the first region, as information ona region where the location detection device is present at the firsttime, to the external apparatus; and receiving information relevant tothe third region from the external apparatus.
 10. A non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium having stored a privacy protectionprogram for causing a computer to perform a process comprising: storing,in a memory, information having been transmitted to an externalapparatus as information on a region where a location detection devicehas been present; identifying a presence possible range of the locationdetection device at a first time information on a second region,including a location that the location detection device detected at asecond time earlier than the first time and having been alreadytransmitted as information on the second region where the locationdetection device has been present at the second time to the externalapparatus and information on an interval between the first time and thesecond time, and identifying a presence possible range of the locationdetection device at the second time based on information on a firstregion including a location that the location detection device detectsat the first time and information on the interval, by referring to thememory; determining whether at least one of the identified presencepossible ranges satisfies a preset condition for a presence possiblerange where it is allowable that a location of the location detectiondevice is known by a third party; when the condition for the at leastone of the identified presence possible ranges is not satisfied,transmitting the information on a third region including the firstregion and a region other than the first region, as information on aregion where the location detection device is present at the first time,to the external apparatus; and receiving information relevant to thethird region from the external apparatus.
 11. The storage mediumaccording to claim 10, wherein the determining includes determining, foreach of the identified presence possible ranges, at least one of whetheran area of the identified presence possible range satisfies thecondition, whether a length of a road included in the identifiedpresence possible range satisfies the condition, whether a number ofplace names included in the identified presence possible range satisfiesthe condition, and whether a number of preset landmarks included in theidentified presence possible range satisfies the condition.
 12. Thestorage medium according to claim 10, wherein at least any one of thepresence possible range of the location detection device at the firsttime and the presence possible range of the location detection device atthe second time, which are identified from a combination of theinformation on the third region and the information on the secondregion, satisfies the condition.
 13. The storage medium according toclaim 12, wherein the transmitting includes deciding the third region byadding one or more regions other than the first region one by one untilthe presence possible range of the location detection device at thefirst time and the presence possible range of the location detectiondevice at the second time satisfy the condition.
 14. The storage mediumaccording to claim 13, wherein an order of adding the regions other thanthe first region to the third region is based on a movement direction ofthe location detection device.
 15. The storage medium according to claim10, wherein the identifying includes identifying the presence possibleranges based on a movement method set in advance.
 16. The storage mediumaccording to claim 10, wherein the receiving further includes selectinginformation relevant to the first region from the received informationrelevant to the third region.
 17. The storage medium according to claim16, wherein out of the received information relevant to the thirdregion, information other than the information relevant to the firstregion is stored in the memory.